If BlackBerry is different than BlackBerry Mobile, could Android Runtime be updated on BB 10?

You can look at the Android Dashboard which is updated every month by Google. You can see 4.3 and below are getting to the place where developers can target higher API and not affect that many users, thus you see more and more apps have minimum 4.4 KitKat requirements. It will take a few years before 5.x reaches that point.

Thanks i'll have to bookmark that. I've seen it a long while ago but not recently. It's really nice that they provide these stats.

As conite said - it wont happen, but it's interesting to see that if it did (just theoretically), it could literally give our BB10 devices another few years life.

As pointed out the runtime isnt going to be the issue in this conversation in reality. Even with 5.0 runtime you will still have the same issue that is more a problem today which is the play services that many apps require. That is the biggest hurdle for for all of this to work anyway, updated runtime or not.

You can look at the Android Dashboard which is updated every month by Google. You can see 4.3 and below are getting to the place where developers can target higher API and not affect that many users, thus you see more and more apps have minimum 4.4 KitKat requirements. It will take a few years before 5.x reaches that point.

13.7% of devices on 4.3 or older - and it was 20% less than 6 months ago. It will be below 10% by spring, and then developers will be dropping support in droves. That's the normal cycle - I used to have a Gingerbread phone and almost overnight, devs stopped supporting it once it fell below 10% or so.

Howarmat speak with forked tongue!
BB10 Not "thing"..... BB10 is "OS" and STILL working in harmony on and off the reservation!

What screws us up most in life
is the picture in our heads
of how we "think" it's suppose to be.

That's why we are given choices.

Don't judge my choices
Without understanding
my reasons.

The BB10 development team is long gone from BlackBerry. They let the majority them go and transferred a few of them to profitable area of the business. I doubt anyone who ever worked on the runtime is still with BlackBerry.

I'm just holding out hope that TCL will come out with an updated version of the Palm OS Treo now that they own Palm. Because I've got to have my Palm OS. I mean, yeah, I could get a BlackBerry, but that would just make me a follower, or signal that I"m just giving in. I'm going to refuse to upgrade to anything else because I'm unique and who really needs all those BlackBerry apps.

I read the recent articles explaining the difference between BlackBerry (software) and BlackBerry Mobile. So if these are now two different entities and BlackBerry is not actually making Android phones, could BlackBerry (software) upgrade Android Runtime on BB10 (if they wanted to)? My understanding of the Runtime upgrade issue was that a company could not simultaneously produce phones that were forked versions of Android and actual Android phones. With the split, this does not now seem to be an issue. I also know there are the secondary issues of the display aspect ratio of some phones, such as the Classic and Passport; and the fact that large numbers of BlackBerry staff who were working on BB10 were laid off. However, I am intrigued to know if some of the older phones like the Leap and Z30 could now get even a slight Runtime bump to Android 4.4 or 5.0.

My apologies as I know there have been numerous posts over the last few years about Runtime updates, but reading the article gave me a (possibly false) glimmer of hope.

"If BlackBerry is different than BlackBerry Mobile, could Android Runtime be updated on BB 10?"

This post is not intended to sound rude, but it seems like there's still too many people thinking that BlackBerry 10 phones will either a) get updated to Android later, or b) Receive an update to the runtime.

None of those two are ever going to happen. Use your BlackBerry 10 phone for what it is. In order to get a true, rich, complete, Android experience, you'll just have to buy exactly that: an Android phone. I personally use my OS 10 device almost entirely for OS 10 features.

Here's your problem, OS 10 is moving just to the corporate user. So unless one of the big clients pushes for it, its dead.

How is a mobile OS any different than say... Windows 7 on your computer? The day it was installed that's what you got. No upgrade.. none, nada!
Just updated drivers to keep the system running smoothly and then various updates to whatever programs you had installed.
I know people who still run Window 7 which is now 8 years old running on computers that it was originally installed on that are 9 years old.

No one's complaining about that, yet, somehow, while most of the world has no clue what makes a mobile device run, including this latest generation who are under the illusion
that they "should just work" have, through sheer stupidity, decided that if they don't get an update, upgrade or download once a week the OS is dead????

Well, it's running just fine on my Passport for a "dead"OS! Thank You!!

OK... so maybe I'm not a team player, because, I don't spend my days playing games on a tiny little toy.
I play in Virtual reality on a 60 in' 3D HDTV. And my friends have whatever mobile devices work best for them..
And by age 11 we were playing games like Ice hockey, Lacrosse and soccer.

Of course around age 13 we traded all that in for a bong and mexican weed and turned into multi-talented musicians which turned us into (dare I say) addicts for Peace, followed by the government's Acid tests which they hoped would show them a way to use it on there enemies, but backfired and turned us into crazed hallucinating far out long haired freaks even MORE intent on Peace and throwing in free love because ....well, BECAUSE!!

And to proof my point, that nothing lasts forever... The generation that dropped acid to escape reality is now taking antacid to cope with it.
But I still have my memories ( and flashbacks!!)

There is one thing that I really need clarification on. I remember a few years ago when they were trying to populate the BlackBerry app store, BlackBerry had software that converts Android app to BlackBerry. Skype was one of the original apps that were in BlackBerry World and it was an Android port.

My question is that if it's that easy to convert Android apps to BlackBerry World, why doesn't BlackBerry just use this software to convert all the top few hundred apps?

I don't think it's that hard to hire a few people to drag apk files and convert them. I convert apk files that require Google play and make them work.

Never understood the reason for the lack of apps when this capability is available

There is one thing that I really need clarification on. I remember a few years ago when they were trying to populate the BlackBerry app store, BlackBerry had software that converts Android app to BlackBerry. Skype was one of the original apps that were in BlackBerry World and it was an Android port.

My question is that if it's that easy to convert Android apps to BlackBerry World, why doesn't BlackBerry just use this software to convert all the top few hundred apps?

I don't think it's that hard to hire a few people to drag apk files and convert them. I convert apk files that require Google play and make them work.

Never understood the reason for the lack of apps when this capability is available

Posted via CB10

Several reasons

1) they dont always work. Many times features would be broke and if it requires GPS its a no go still.

2) Permission. They dont have it. They have to get the owner to sign off and give the OK. And most probably wont

3) Support. There would be none. The original owner isnt going to support this type of thing if something is broke. So if BB did this and then it is broke they have nothing they can do

4) at this point its not worth the effort anyway. They dont care about marketshare and sales even of bb10 devices. They are looking to the future where bb10 is the past they can forget

My question is that if it's that easy to convert Android apps to BlackBerry World, why doesn't BlackBerry just use this software to convert all the top few hundred apps?

Because they would promptly be sued by all of the companies whose apps they converted. Those apps don't belong to BB - they belong to the companies who developed them, and those companies, not BB (and not Microsoft, and not Jolla, and not Samsung [for Tizen], and not Ubuntu) get to decide which platforms and app stores and devices they support and which ones they don't. It is illegal to take the Intellectual Property (IP) of another company for your own use - the company who owns the IP must either give you written permission or must do the work themselves.

And before you ask, the reason all those companies didn't convert their apps and put them in BB World is because then they would have to support those apps going forward, and because they'd have to make sure those apps worked well, or they'd get low app ratings which affect their reputations as a company, generate bad press, and alienate users - all things app devs wish to avoid. They'd much rather lose out a handful of customers (they're well aware that most users of "alternative" mobile OSs also have a second mainstream device to run apps on, so most users will still be covered) than to have to deal with the development and support costs and hassles. It's the same reason that the Amazon Marketplace is such a wasteland - and realize that Fire OS is just an Android variant! It's still too much work for most devs to rip out all of the Google services and dependencies out of their apps and replace them with similar Amazon or other not-GMS services, and then constantly keep that fork maintained. There's just no Return On Investment (ROI) because the number of unique users (i.e., people who don't also have an Android or iOS device) is far too small to be financially viable.

It is very sad and interesting to watch the discussion. IMHO, all the BB10 handsets are near the end of design intended life (based on reliability test - hopefully, it passed - normally, nothing designed more than 3- 5 years for mobile consumer device). Of course, it is very flattering to the designer so many users still want their BB10 handset to lasting more than few more years. Not because cost (I am sure few is in tight budget), but majority site the reason of hardware superiority and KB. The integration of software and hardware after 10.3.2 is look like all loves (correct me if I am wrong, i haven't heard anything except lack of app and update so far). Face the reality, although with love, the hardware is on its last leg, unless new one come up, soon or later you will facing issues - not like Linex, it runs on many hardware without too much restriction.
Many apps, that download once and use many times without update were done in early BB days - dictionary, translation, sight seeing maps, etc. The one need to update repeatly, even the website, are the ones in trouble. Either google run time, lack of support from other party dev, such as facebook, wechat, etc. bad news are, as beginning of BB10 days, many user, especially, the consumer users can not live without them. (just look at the world wide number of daily users increase of facebook, you have to face the reality).
I have no doubt the elite dev out there can make the BB10 apps WITHOUT those "trendy" social media, BBM still a valid platform - with some update. Unless you start a new platform to replace some of the key social media people want, like the snap chat - I am not saying snap chat for BB user, but it is possible to take on some of the "trendy" or replace them. - just like snapchat, it might never,ever make money, unless you face the music of design to the lowest denominator - pokemon go (not hurt to fill it to your pocket with some pork belly once a while).
Unless you have a common place to post your great creation for BB10, it would be hard to find on BBW. Forget Amazon app store or Playstore. Unelss Cobot put out special store front for BB10, get enough subscription to hosting it, for example, it would be hard for all the NEW app.
I was all for BB10, until my niece's high school start to use app for assignment, only two version, iOS and Droid. I met my waterloo. She love her BB, start from 9860, but look like I have to buy her a mercury as gift for university (she currently uses classmate's iphone to get assignment done). How you guys address such issue? negociate with every school to port the app?
Before someone voice the new BB10 hardware/OS with new updated runtime, above items should be considered. I am waiting for someoneto enlighten me. Thanks in advance. (I have to say, something very special could happen based on the discussion I saw here... I wish you success).